Saturday, February 28, 2009

Cross-Sectional Views of Three Significant El Ninos – Part 2

I’ve moved to WordPress.  This post can now be found at Cross-Sectional Views of Three Significant El Ninos – Part 2
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The following is the video “Cross-Sectional Views of Three Significant El Ninos – Part 2”. It includes the 1982/83 and the 1986/87/88 El Nino events. The post Cross-Sectional Views of Three Significant El Nino Events – Part 1 covers the 1997/98 El Nino.

A QUICK SUMMARY

The 1982/83 El Nino was similar in magnitude to the 1997/98 El Nino, but during the 1982/83 El Nino, the Thermocline in the Indian Ocean did NOT “flatten” as it had in the 1997/98 El Nino, so the anomalous warming in the Western equatorial Indian Ocean did not occur during the 1982/83 El Nino. The Pacific Thermocline did flatten during the 1982/83 El Nino, just as it had during the 1997/98 event.

During the 1986/87/88 multiyear El Nino, the Pacific Thermocline does not flatten completely, but there is a noticeable decrease in its slope. The Pacific Thermocline remains “flatter than normal” until a month or two before the secondary peak of 1986/87/88 El Nino.